TC Helicon PLAY ACOUSTIC 3-Button Vocal and Acoustic Guitar Effects Stompbox with BodyRez and Looping

This is an initial review. I'll be updating it as milestones in usage and experience warrant. First thoughts: I was apprehensive about purchasing a new vocal/ guitar effects unit. My experience was that they invariably were difficult to use in a live performance capacity. This one so far seems to belie that. I will say that I have read the downloadable pdf complete manual and I recommend doing that. However the presets of the unit are well programmed so you don't HAVE to be a programming whiz. I do recommend getting at the very least the optional "Switch 3" sold seperately. I got one on sale for about 35 bucks. You'll see why when you get one. I do recommend the unit. It has great harmony capabilities and the guitar "body rez" setting is astounding. Getting an acoustic guitarvto sound miked without a mic is a feature well worth the price. Next step: Using it for live gigs. Will let you know.

I purchased this after hearing a musician at a restaurant that was using it. Was just him and a guitar and it sounded great.The vocal effects on this are indeed GREAT. Haven't tried the acoustic effects much yet.

Lots of settings to use, not thrilled that the headphone jack is only a 1/8 size instead of a standard1/4” wish that they had used seperate outputs for voice and guitar. They have 2 outputs, but they are not seperated. And after 15 years of using different Helicon products you would think they could put a simple on off switch rather than having to plug/unplug every time you want to turn it off/on… Cmon Helicon,this is 2024 time to start putting on/off switches on all your vocal products!

Love this product! This my second one! The harmonies are so manageable!

Great addition to my pedals. Still learning the looping! Sounds great for what I do. I've seen plenty of guitar players using this unit, so I thought I'd give it a try. I'm glad I did!

Our show wouldn't be the same without these

I absolutely love this. Now, ask me tomorrow, and I may say I hate it and is crap. The truth is that this can do so many things I consistently got lost. So take your time and watch lots of how to videos. You're going to be amazed at what this can do. I'm sold on TV Helicon. Very well constructed, like bullet proof level.

I am a pro player and I had a TC Play GTX, which was an older similar model, and very good, but started acting up after 3 years and a couple hundred gigs. I didn't feel like messing with it and trying to fix it, it was well used so I just wanted to replace it, but it's no longer a current model. I assumed most of the features would be the same on the Play Acoustic once the firmware was updated, but you only have access to reverb and delay as far as effects go. I like to add a little boost and overdrive for rock solos, a little tremolo for ambient and surf music, etc., yes, on my acoustic guitar (I play a Godin Multiac nylon which has a thin body like an electric, doesn't feed back, so I have a lot of freedom to use effects) and this device doesn't allow that. It does have "body modeling" which I was excited to try, but does away with most other effect modules. This does make some nice acoustic tones, I suppose if I dug around enough I could have found a way to have a clean boost, but still just not enough versatility for what I do. If you don't upgrade the firmware you only have one global guitar tone, so changing patches only changes vocal effect/harmony. Almost the exact opposite of what I want, I only use one or 2 vocal effects with light harmony for choruses, but like to vary my guitar tone and volume more actively. Even with the firmware update it's far from what I was used to with the GTX. I used it on one gig and found the harmony tracking not to be as good as the GTX either, I hope that's not the case with the Play Electric, which I just ordered to replace this Play Acoustic, which I returned after 1 gig. I really hope the harmonizer quality hasn't gone down on these new models, the harmony quality was my original reason to go with TC. If you want a VERY acoustic tone, this device will probably do the trick for you, if not, look elsewhere. Discussions on the TC forums show that several acoustic players like the Play Electric so hopefully that will replace the GTX more ably.